Most mobile devices are equipped to facilitate the exchange of messages between the device and a messaging server. For example, many mobile devices support Exchange Active Sync (EAS), a protocol designed by Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash. for the synchronization of email, contacts, calendar events and tasks. More recent versions of EAS are configured to enforce certain security policies against a mobile device that employs EAS. Some examples of these policies include requirements for a password and a minimum password length and a timeout without user input.
These policies are enforced against the entire mobile device that uses EAS such that the mobile device is managed by these policies. In particular, the EAS password requirement, when enabled, requires a user to enter a password prior to any use of the mobile device. This indiscriminate application of policies against the mobile device is inefficient and may interfere with certain configurations that may be set up on the device.